The Role of Social Media for Small Business

Advice for growing your small business on social media

The goal of social media marketing is to get noticed, get shared, reach new audiences and create product brand awareness. By spreading the word about your product from customer to customer on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, and others, you can gain greater trust of what your message transmits because it is shared between trusted “friends.”

Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social media channels, followed closely by YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+. In addition to a large number of users, these platforms offer benefits to business owners.

Social media allows you to share with your followers anything new about your company, and when you give them valuable information they might share it with their friends and family—generating instant referrals! The easiest customer to lose is the one you don’t speak with. Forge stronger bonds with your customers by building relationships through social media.

No matter what your business is, or how new you are to social media, there are a few simple steps that can help you achieve your social media marketing objectives:

1. Networking

Search for users who you think fall into your target audience segment and add them to your network. When placing a request to add users to your network, it is always better to accompany such requests with a personalized message. You can also join groups that pertain to your line of business or interests.

The goal isn’t to sell your products, but to ‘engage’ and provide information your audience will find useful as it relates to your company. For example, rather than a product demonstration video, share footage of someone using and loving the benefits of your product on YouTube. It serves to promote your product, becomes instantly searchable online, and can reach a greater audience.

2. Propagating your online presence

Announce your social media presence by adding links to your social media pages on your website, e-mail signature line or newsletter. Having social media profiles for your business greatly helps with SEO, with each social media platform generating a link to your website.

Another way to propagate your online presence is by adding pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements, which can be excellent for small businesses. PPC is a great tool, because it helps small businesses that don’t have a big budget start a marketing campaign where you pay a fee each time one of your ads is clicked.

3. Connecting

Stay connected with your followers and group members. Social media marketing is easy to start, but requires effort to maintain. And like many networking efforts, results are usually not immediate.

Be consistent in your online participation; It is not a one-time effort. It is about building a relationship—and relationships take time. Be consistent in your social media communication. Have an interesting

tweet/post/update at least every day. However, don’t over post, posting 10 times a day can annoy your audience and make them stop following.

To summarize, start on any of the big platforms, connect with people and businesses that fit your industry, post something new everyday, try videos and new ideas, and be patient with expectations… It’s easy!